Six Sigma Tools – III : Process Map, Cause & Effect analysis, FMEA

Description

INTRODUCTION

This course on Six Sigma Tools – III : Process Map, Cause & Effect analysis, FMEA is part of the Six Sigma Specialization series that is designed to give an introductory and intermediate level of familiarization of Six Sigma concepts and tools.

Six Sigma is a systematic improvement process leading to process design / redesign. It uses several statistical tools and is widely applicable to any process – be it in manufacturing or functional areas. The benefits of Six Sigma are widely acknowledged in several industries and for several different processes – many industries have saved many millions of dollars

Six Sigma coupled with other processes like lean manufacturing form a lethal combination leading to radical improvements and huge savings of time, effort and money.

An understanding of the principles is essential for all – both in management and technical workforce.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

This course covers the Six Sigma Tools – III : Process Map, Cause & Effect analysis, FMEA. 

Process Maps are detailed flow diagram of the process that drill further into the high level map generated on the SIPOC. The purpose is to visually represent the process as it is in reality. This map is considered a living document. It is meant to be reviewed and updated on a continuous basis. The development of the map is a team effort and it will educate everyone on the reality of the process and most often how little of the total process is value added. Typically, there are obvious improvements that will be become evident while the mapping is being done. Creating a process map on a computer is common and many software programs exist that have symbols created.

When utilizing a team approach to problem solving, there are often many opinions as to the problem’s root cause. One way to capture these different ideas and stimulate the team’s brainstorming on root causes is the cause and effect diagram, commonly called a fishbone. The fishbone will help to visually display the many potential causes for a specific problem or effect. It is particularly useful in a group setting and for situations in which little quantitative data is available for analysis. To construct a fishbone, start with stating the problem in the form of a question. Framing it as a “why” question will help in brainstorming, as each root cause idea should answer the question. The rest of the fishbone then consists of one line drawn across the page, attached to the problem statement, and several lines, or “bones,” coming out vertically from the main line. These branches are labelled with different categories – Machines – Methods – Materials – Measurements -Mother Nature (Environment) – Manpower (People). Once you have the branches labelled, begin brainstorming possible causes and attach them to the appropriate branches. For each cause identified, continue to ask “why does that happen?” and attach that information as another bone of the category branch. This will help get you to the true drivers of a problem.

A Cause and Effect Matrix is a tool to help the Six Sigma project team to Prioritize the X’s or Process Inputs. The Cause and Effect Matrix relates Process Steps to Process Inputs (X’s) and correlates the Inputs to Process Outputs. In a C&E Matrix, Customer Requirements (or Y’s) are ranked by order of importance to the Customer. The Inputs (X’s) and Outputs are rated by their interaction impact. The Cause and Effect Matrix should determine what Key Inputs Process Input Variables (KPIV’s) should get the most attention. Once the C&E Matrix is completed, the next step in the Six Sigma Root Cause Analysis is the FMEA to determine how the Key Inputs can Fail.

Failure mode effects analysis (FMEA) is a tool to quantify and prioritize risk and then track actions to mitigate that risk. It’s valuable for identifying and prioritizing which critical few factors you must address to improve the process. FMEA is a tabulated list of the process steps, with each step’s potential failure modes (ways in which the process step may go wrong or not produce its desired/required outcome); its associated effects and causes; how often the causes occur; and how well the causes are controlled, prevented, or detected.

We will discuss these topics in this course.  

On completion of this series, the user will have a good knowledge of:

• Tools used in Define stage – Project charter, Thought map, SIPOC, Value Stream Map, Zero Loss studies to identify bottleneck machine / operation (in manufacturing), Cause and Effect matrix, Failure Mode Effect Analysis
• Measuring the process – Measurement System Analysis. This may be more relevant for processes related to manufacturing
• Improvement methods and related statistical tools of Hypothesis testing – Chi squared test, t test, Analysis of variance (ANOVA)
• Control strategies for sustenance of the improvements made by design or redesign of processes

After this series, the participant can appreciate any topic on Six Sigma which are at fundamental or intermediate levels. On completion of the series the participant will be ready to enroll in Advanced courses on Six Sigma that lead to a formal certification as a White Belt or Yellow Belt or Green Belt or Black Belt.

ALL of our courses in this series is developed based on decades of front-line industry experience of the instructor. 

WHO SHOULD TAKE THIS COURSE

Anyone who is involved with any process, be it manufacturing or transactional. It is uniformly applicable across any function. This course is equally important to any operator or management staff.

The series should form mandatory knowledge for any professional in manufacturing or Supply Chain or Project Management or HR or any function and especially a new employee.

This course is ALSO part of the is a Bundled Specialization course titled Six Sigma Specialization. You might also want to consider  to take the course on Lean Manufacturing Tools Specialization along with this course.

COURSE CONTENT 

• INTRODUCTION
• LINKING THE DOCUMENTS
• PROCESS MAP (PMAP)
  • What is a Process Map
  • Process Map vs Process Flow Chart
  • Preparing the process map
  • Process map examples
• CAUSE & EFFECT MATRIX
  • What is Cause & Effect Matrix
  • Steps to Cause & Effect Matrix
  • C&E Matrix examples
• PROCESS FMEA
  • What is FMEA
  • How to make FMEA
  • FMEA steps
  • FMEA steps overview
  • FMEA : Additional Resource
• SUMMARY & EXAMPLES
  • Example – Project #1
  • Example – Project #2
• REFERENCES & COURSE HANDOUTS
• FINAL QUIZ